Sean Caisse Back
In Victory Lane, This Time at
Adirondack
After Two-Straight Runner-Up Finishes Caisse Wins for Third Time
in 2006
CONCORD, NC
(August 1, 2006)
--
Sean Caisse and his new team, Andy Santerre Motorsports, came
out of the starting gate of the 2006 NASCAR Busch East Series
season on fire. The Casella-sponsored number-44 team won both
if its first races at Greenville and Stafford. Along the way
this season, Caisse has earned three pole awards and led his
fair share of laps.
Pretty much everything has been
clicking for the team, but for a team that had championship
aspirations at the season's outset, there was still plenty of
work to do. It had been four races since Caisse was in Victory
Lane as the ASM team ventured to Adirondack International
Speedway (NY) on Saturday night. Even two straight second-place
finishes in the series' last two events weren't enough to
maintain a point lead as Caisse entered AIS second in the
standings.
Everything got back on track at
AIS on Saturday, as Caisse found his way back in the winner's
circle for the third time on the season in the Edge Hotel 150
Presented by Casella Waste Systems and closed up the gap to the
point leader Mike Olsen to in the process.
"When we won the first two
races of the year, we kind of set the bar pretty high for
ourselves for the rest of the year," said Caisse. "We then went
four straight races without winning, but we still ran up front
like our second-place finishes at Lake Erie and New Hampshire.
We've only had one bad race so far at Thompson. We've won three
races now and it's pretty awesome that we were able to win at
Adirondack.
"If there was one track on the
schedule that I wouldn't have thought we would've won at, it
would be Adirondack. I didn't have that good of a car when I
raced there last year and when you're car isn't good you don't
like a racetrack. Now that I've had a car like I had on
Saturday night at Adirondack, I love the place."
Unlike most of Caisse's strong
finishes this year, he wasn't leading the way for the majority
of the race at Adirondack. The 20-year-old New Hampshire-native
had to earn his victory Saturday night. Caisse started second
but patiently waited for the right time to pounce to the lead,
finally doing so on lap 100.
"The biggest factor was having
the four-time Busch East champion (crew chief and team owner)
Andy Santerre on the radio with me. My whole learning
experience this year has been through his teaching. He told me
to save my car for the end. He said that you're always on your
right-front tire at Adirondack, so saving those tires would be
the most important thing to do. I was running only about 80- to
85-percent the first part of the race. Matt
Kobyluck got about a full
straightaway lead on me at one point, but I was just saving my
car. I did everything that I could to just ride and save my car
for the end.
"Kobyluck made a mistake with a
lapped car and that opened up a hole for me. I took the lead
and just kept riding but I never thought I had the race won.
The announcer asked me after the race when I thought I had the
race won, and I told him, ‘not until I crossed underneath the
checkered flag.' I knew I had a good car that could win, but I
never expected the win until it was all over."
Caisse's victory and
championship leader Mike Olsen's third-place finish closed the
gap to just 34 points between the two as the BES heads into its
final four races of the season. The tight third-mile bullring
of Waterford Speedbowl is next up on
the schedule, and Caisse is looking at Waterford as the start of
a title run that will come down to himself and Olsen.
"We've only got four races to
go. Waterford's up next and that's
going to be a survival race. I don't care where I finish there;
I just want to beat the number-61 car. Right now, unless Olsen
and I falter, the championship is going to come down to the two
of us. When we go to Loudon, each of us had good racecars there
a few weeks ago and it's going to be a tough battle. I ran
really good at Dover last year and
I'm even more excited about going there with Andy, who won the
race at Dover last year. Then we've got Lime Rock and anything
can happen at that road course. So it's going to be a battle
all the way until the end, that's for sure.
The Edge Hotel 150 Presented by
Casella Waste Systems from Adirondack will be broadcast on SPEED
August 10th at 5:30pm ET.
For more information on Andy
Santerre Motorsports and Sean Caisse, contact Matt Kentfield at
(704) 455-2051 and visit the all-new online home of ASM,
www.andysanterremotorsports.com.
